|
Literature and the arts (fine or otherwise) in general have served as a kind of Saturnalia, given the license to question generally accepted values and conventions and to offer novel—and even radical and revolutionary—modes of thought and expression, sanctifying and celebrating moral and socio-political outcasts and heretics. Unorthodox discourse and discourse on unorthodoxy becomes more demanding, if not necessary, as cultures meet, contend, and osmotically seep into each other in an increasingly globalized world. Carnivals are extended to include everyday praxis, blurring and widening the boundaries that separate chaos and order, becoming more and more a part of normalcy as rebellion and experimentation become a trend and vulnerable to commodification. As the Berlin Walland trade barriers are taken down, studies in the arts and humanities have questioned their own codes and canons, setting side by side the classical and the avant-garde, the high and the popular, the central and the peripheral, the sublime and the profane. Accordingly, boundaries between disciplines and languages are crossed as interdisciplinary inquiries and translations crowd and saturate the academy and the market, and radical, revolutionary ideas and movements that dismantle established notions and norms of identity, nation, race, class, gender, and sexuality are watered down to jargon and small talk. Will, then, the Socratic figure escape execution to, in turn, be imprisoned as a commercial icon on a T-shirt front?
This conference is expected to bring together scholars, writers, artists, and activist engaged in various fields.
The organizers invite aspiring, emerging, and experienced scholars (faculty members as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students) as well as cultural and literacy activists to submit abstracts of 250 words the following topics.
-The place of the arts and the humanities in a globalized, postmodern world of hypercommodification
-Representation and performance social transgressions in literature and art
-Travels and transversals across familiar discourses and uncharted spaces
-The impact of tourism and cross-cultural encounters on local and global cultures
-Habitation and habituation in transitory and liminal realms
-The dismantling or incoherence of identities—sexual, racial, ethnic, national, religious, or otherwise
-Problems and problematics in linguistic, literary, and cultural translation
-Artistic endeavours as breakthroughs and/or breakdowns
-Aesthetic innovations and violations, experimental art, and new media
-Crossing pedagogical barriers in teaching English, EFL, and ESL
-Other relevant topics
|
